The blessed pilgrimage – A worship of wealth and sacrifice

Allah ta'ala is our Lord, He is our Sustainer. All the blessings that we have are bestowed upon us by Allah ta'ala. Allah ta'ala wants that we use these blessings according to the way that He has prescribed.

If we look at all the blessings, we can summarize them into two main categories: life and wealth. They are blessings by themselves, but we enjoy other blessings because we can get them through wealth, and because we have life and health. Allah ta'ala has ordered us in the Qur’an to dedicate our lives and wealth for Him. In other words, Allah ta'ala has ordered us to dedicate all of the other blessings, our health, our strength, our time, our children for His sake as well. If Allah ta'ala had just ordered us, this would have become mandatory upon us; but it’s strange that Allah ta'ala also promises Paradise in return as a reward for those who fulfil this order. It’s even more strange that Allah ta'ala says that He has bought these two blessings from you in return for Paradise. Allah ta'ala says:

“Indeed, Allah has bought of the believers their lives and their wealth, promising them Paradise in return.” (9:111)

In other words, O believer, I gifted you these blessings and made you the owner, now I buy these from you and I have become the owner again; and the price that I pay you for these blessings is Paradise. Isn’t it just the mercy of Allah ta'ala? He wants to grant us Paradise, and is creating this process to give us an excuse.

Amongst the rituals that Allah ta'ala has given us, prayer and fasting are purely a physical worship. Zakah (charity) is purely a monetary worship. Hajj (the greater pilgrimage to Makkah) is a combination of both. We can only get on to this journey if we have the necessary wealth and the means to do so, and this journey requires physical struggle as well. So if we offer our Hajj with complete devotion and fulfilling its requirements, Allah ta'ala will grant us Paradise. The Prophet salallaho alaihe wasallam has said:

“Whoever does Hajj for the sake of Allah, and he does not commit acts of indecency and does not sin, he returns like the day his mother gave birth to him.” (Bukhari)

And he has also said:

“There is no reward for an accepted Hajj except Paradise.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

The journey of Hajj is the journey to show our love to Allah ta'ala. It is a journey where we leave our worldly status behind, leave our clothing behind, and leave our homes behind, to express our love and gratitude. And Allah ta'ala reciprocates that on the day of Arafah, the 9th of Dhul Hijjah (last month of the Islamic calendar), by forgiving our sins and granting us whatever we are in need of in this world and the Hereafter.

We should all strive to go to Hajj as soon as possible. If we have done our obligatory Hajj, and Allah ta'ala gives us the opportunity, we should try to go again, for both Hajj and Umrah (smaller pilgrimage). We have a hope from Allah ta'ala that He will forgive us and grant us Paradise, and that He will protect our faith and will allow us to die as Muslims.